Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-28
A Great Storm Coming, Compared
With Which Noah's DeIuge Was
but an April Shower.
The Invitation That Went Forth To
Noah Is Sounding in the Ears
OF ALI Humanity.
1t Is tho wisest and Safest Plan for U.
To Get Housed For ALI Eternity
Before the storm Comes.
Special to the Gazette.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., preached
in this city this morning to vast con-
gregation. His text was Genesis vii, l:
''Come thou and all thy mouse into the
ark" The eloquent preacher sail:
We do not need the Bible to prove the
deluge. The biologists hammer an
nounces it, sea-shells and marine forma-
tions on the Top of some Of the highest
mountains of the earth prove that at some
time the waters washed over the top Of
the Alps and the Audes. In what way
the catastrophe came, we know not:
whether by the stroke of comet or by
flashes of lightning, changing the air into
water, or by stroke of the hand of God,
like the stroke of the ak between the
horns Of the OK, the earth staggered. To
meet the catastrophe, God ordered
great ship built. 1t WAS TO be without
PROV, for it was to sail to no shore. 1t
was to be without helm, for no human
hand should guide it. 1t was vast
structure, probably as large as two or
three Cuuard steamers. It was the
Great Eastern OF oIden time.
The ship is done. The door is open.
The lizards crawl in. The cattle walk in.
The grasshODpers hop in. The birds fly
in. The invitation goes forth to Noah:
"Come thou and all thy house into the
ark" Just one human family embark on
the strange voyage, aud / hear the door
slam shut. a great storm sweeps alOrG
the hills, and bends the Cedars until all
the branches snap in the gale. There is
moan in the wind like unto the moan Of a
diving world. The blaCknesS Of the
~ EN,,@ t,o e bo
lightnlngs, that look down into the
waters, and throw a ghastliness on the
face of the mOu' taiGs. How strange it
looks! How suff0cating the air seems!
The big drops OF rain plash upon the up
turned faces of those VINO are watching
the tempest. Crash! go the rocks IN con-
YulsiOn. Boom! 60 the bursting heavens
The inhabitants Of the earth, instead of
fleeing to kouse-top and mOuntain-tOp,
as men have fancied, sit down in dumb,
white horror TO die. For when God gTinds
mountains to pieces, and lets the ocean
slip its cable, there is no place for men to
fly to. See the ark pitch and tumble in
the surf, while from it's windows the pas
sengers look out upon the shipWreck of q
race, and the CaTCasses Of a dead world.
Woe TO the mountains! Woe to the sea !
am no aiarmist. When, on the goth
of September. after the wind has for three
days been blowing from the northeast,
you prophecy that the equinoctiaI storm
is coming, you simply state q fact not to
be disputed. Neither am l an alarmIst
when l say that a storm is coming, com
pared with which NOahs deluge was but
an April shower; and that it is the Wisest
and safest for you and for me TO get safely
housed for eternity. The invitation that
went forth to Noah sounds in our ears
"COme thou and all thy house into the
ark"
Well, how did Noah and his family
come into the ark? Did they climb IN at
the window, or come down the roof? No;
they went through the door. And Just so,
if we get into the ark of Gods mercy, it
will be through Christ the door. The en-
trance to the ark Of old must have been 8
very large entrance. We know that it
was, from the fact that there were mon
ster animals in the earlier ages; and, in
order to get them into the ark two and
two, according 10 the Bible statement,
the door must have been very wide and
very high. SO the door into the mercy of
God is large door. We 60 in, not two
by two, but by hundreds, and by thou
sands, and by millions. Yea, all the ma
tions of the earth may go in, ten millions
abreast.
The door of the ancient ark was in the
side. So now it is through tse side of
Christine pierced side, the wide-Open
side, the heart side-that we enter. Aha.
the Roman soldier, thrusting his spear
into the Ssviour's side, expected only to
let the blood out, but he opened the way
TO let all the world in. 0, what broad
gospel to preach! If man is about to
give an entertainment he issues one or
two hundred invitations, carefully put up
and directed to the particular persons
whom he wishes to entertain. But God
our Father makes banquet, and goes out
to the front door of heaven, and stretches
out His hands over land and sea, and,
with voice that penetrates the HindOo
Jungle, and the Greenland ice castle, and
Brazilian grove, and Eng ish factory, and
American home, cries out: "CUme, for
all things are now ready" 1t is a wide
door! The old cross has been taken
apart, and its two pieces are stood up for
the door posts, so far apart that all the
world can come in. Kings scatter tres-'
sures on days of great rejoicing. So
Christ, cur King, comes and scatterS the
Jewels of heaven. Rowland Hill said
that he hoped to get into heaven through
the crevices of the door. But he was not
obliged thus to go in. After having
preached the gospel in Surrey chapel, &C
ing up toward heaven, the gate-keeper
cried: Cliff up your heads, ye eveTlast-
ing gates, and let this man come in" The
dying thief went in. Richard BaX-
ter and Robert Newton went in.
Europe, ASIA, Africa, North and
South America, may yet go
through this wide door without crowd
ing. Ho, every One!-sli conditions, all
ranks, all people. Luther said that this
truth WAS worth clrrYing on ones knees
from Rome 20 Jerusalem; but l think IL
worth carrying all around the globe, and
all around the heavens, that "GOd so
loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosQever he,ieveth
in Him should not perish, but have ever
lasting lifen WhosOever will, let him
come through the large door. Arcaim-
edes wanted fulcrum on which 10 place
his lever, and then be said that he could
move the world. Calvary is the fulcrum,
and the cross of Christ Is the lever; and
by that power al nations shall We: be
lifted